Comments on: Red Coats Know It Best: Hear It From One of Our Own http://blog.delta.com/2011/01/06/red-coats-know-it-best-hear-it-from-one-of-our-own/ Tue, 07 May 2013 18:19:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Badger_Prof http://blog.delta.com/2011/01/06/red-coats-know-it-best-hear-it-from-one-of-our-own/comment-page-1/#comment-6597 Badger_Prof Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:02:12 +0000 http://blog.delta.com/?p=9045#comment-6597 The redcoat idea is a great one. My personal experience traveling with Delta a fair amount (I have Diamond status) is that, when exceptions occur (mechanical, botched schedule, weather issues, etc.) the agents at the gate almost always try their best to help but are often overwhelmed by the volume of the task. When overwhelmed, some agents respond by doing it “by the book” without considering alternatives that would make sense for the customer and the airline. Most of the time, I resolve these issues by calling the Diamond Line. One simple example: the last two times I have flown the small regional jet from MSN to ATL to connect with international flights, the flight out of MSN was significantly delayed because of problems with the weight and balance. This necessitated taking passengers off the plane who had already boarded (and their luggage) resulting in a large number of misconnects due to the 45 minute to 75 minute delay. The response I got from the gate agent once was “You have already been re-booked on XXX.” This was a great response–and the way we all want this to work. The second time this happened, the response from the gate agent was that I would have to choose to either stay with the late flight and check with the agent in Atlanta for a possible alternative flight (the soonest alternative would be the next day) or voluntarily switch to standby for flights to Asia via MSP and hope for the best. I called the Diamond Line and was confirmed by the agent in business class on the flights via MSP (I was traveling on a purchased business class ticket).

]]> By: golich17 http://blog.delta.com/2011/01/06/red-coats-know-it-best-hear-it-from-one-of-our-own/comment-page-1/#comment-6472 golich17 Mon, 10 Jan 2011 05:54:18 +0000 http://blog.delta.com/?p=9045#comment-6472 Michelle is one of the best Red Coats around! I’m an agent at DTW and she always has the customer in mind :)

@Inconceivable: All agents are empowered to make decisions on their own. Many of us do on a day-to-day basis. But it is the people (the traveling public) who want to hear the decision from someone else… the “supervisor” per-se. That is where the Red Coat comes in.

]]> By: Inconceivable http://blog.delta.com/2011/01/06/red-coats-know-it-best-hear-it-from-one-of-our-own/comment-page-1/#comment-6457 Inconceivable Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:17:27 +0000 http://blog.delta.com/?p=9045#comment-6457 Red Coats are awesome…but would be even more awesome is if you still empowered your agents to make decisions for themselves on behalf of customers! Relegating front-line CSAs to “Deltamatic button pushers” has had a significant negative impact on customer service quality. There is nothing more demoralizing to a gate agent than hearing a HVC say “Well, I’m a Diamond and I don’t like that. I want a Red Coat.” When the Red Coat intercedes you have a line of customers who have just been taught not to respect the CSA–after all, why accept a “no” from someone who isn’t empowered to say “yes”?

But what do I know, I’m just a 15 year pilot.

]]> By: aviator365 http://blog.delta.com/2011/01/06/red-coats-know-it-best-hear-it-from-one-of-our-own/comment-page-1/#comment-6455 aviator365 Thu, 06 Jan 2011 14:41:37 +0000 http://blog.delta.com/?p=9045#comment-6455 Good work everyone..keep it up!

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